MH370 ruled ‘an accident’(2)

"There is no change to the underwater search that is currently being undertaken. At present there are four ships in the search area and no debris or pieces related to MH370 have been detected to date. The Australian government remains committed to the search for MH370," the Joint Agency Coordination Center of Australia told the Global Times Thursday.

Dozens of family members of the Chinese passengers onboard, who received news of the announcement from local governments in Hebei and Guizhou provinces, gathered near the Malaysian Embassy in Beijing Thursday around midday, requesting a report with concrete evidence of the investigation before declaring their loved ones dead based on uncertainty.

They were later transported to a hotel in Beijing's Shunyi Airport Logistics Zone after the Malaysian side postponed the scheduled briefing for two and a half hours.

Family members were angry about the declaration, requesting Malaysian Embassy staff at the scene to provide more facts. Several Chinese officials were comforting the families, promising any possible help to them and a continued search.

"Considering the situation with MH370, the announcement came at a time when the airline feels it must draw a conclusion on the first phase of the search. After declaring MH370 an accident, it can move on to the next stage, which includes compensation procedures and a different approach to the search based on the presumption that all the passengers have died," Wang Jiangmin, a research fellow with World Civil Aviation Resource Net, told the Global Times.

Families can file compensation claims immediately on within two years of the planned landing date of the flight, based on the calculation of the recipient court, according to the Montreal Convention, Hao Junbo, a seasoned international litigation lawyer, told the Global Times. This could be either March 8, 2016, or other later dates according to individual courts.

The compensation could be at least 1.1 million yuan ($176,100) to 1.2 million yuan based on the special drawing right stipulated in the convention and will vary depending on further developments, including the cause of the accident to determine liability, said Hao.

Timeline for missing MH370

March 8, 2014, MH370 disappeared with 239 passengers and crew whilst en-route to Beijing.

March 15, 2014, authorities announced they would abandon search efforts in the South China Sea, Gulf of Thailand and Strait of Malacca to focus their efforts on the Southern Indian Ocean west of Australia.

March 24, 2014, the Malaysian government announced that "flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean."

October 6, 2014, the underwater search was resumed after a break of four months.

January 2015, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau said that around 18,000 square kilometers of the seafloor have been searched, which is around 30 percent of the priority search area. The search is expected to finish around May 2015.

January 29, 2015, Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, Director General of the Department of Civil Aviation Malaysia, announced that the loss of MH370 was an accident.